Uconn

Huskies' Hartley to miss Sunday's opener with ankle injury All-America guard could be out 2-4 games BY ROGER CLEAVELANDRepublican-American

Connecticut's Bria Hartley, left, celebrates with fans in the seated in the student section after her team's win over Texas A&M in an NCAA college basketball game in Hartford, Conn., Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011. Connecticut won 81-51. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

STORRS ­­– The UConn women’s basketball team will definitely start the season without its lone All-American on Sunday, as the Huskies’ medical staff discovered that Bria Hartley’s ankle injury is more serious than initially diagnosed.

Hartley said that team physician, Dr. Tom Trojian, expects her to miss 2-4 games, because further review of the MRI done on her ankle showed not only a high grade sprain but a partial ligament tear.

Coach Geno Auriemma said Friday that he expects Hartley to miss Sunday’s season opener against Charleston and the Huskies’ second game, at Texas A&M, but he hopes she will be ready for the team’s trip to the Virgin Islands for games 3-5 in the Paradise Jam tournament.

“She’s missed a month now,” Auriemma said. “So I would say right now what’s realistic is that she’s going to need at least a week, if not more, of practice before she’s a hundred percent, like ready to practice and ready to play.

“So in my mind I’m thinking, `OK, sometime after Texas A&M (Nov. 18),’ Because it would difficult to come back next week. We only have a couple days of practice, travel and then say, `OK, you’re ready to play.’ So I’m not counting her Sunday. In my mind, I’m not counting on her at Texas A&M. After that I’d be a little bit surprised if she wasn’t ready for the Paradise Jam.’’

Hartley injured the ankle during the FIBA World 3-on-3 championships in Greece at the end of August. She played after hurting the ankle and also returned to campus and continued individual drills and pickup games.

It wasn’t until she finally told the coaching and medical staffs that the ankle still hurt that Auriemma sidelined her after the first official day of practice on Oct. 14.

``I probably should’ve sat out a little bit earlier,’’ Hartley said. ``Now you just do what the doctor says and just work on getting better. That’s the only thing I can do. (Athletic trainer) Rosemary (Ragle) has me doing a bunch of workouts and stuff, trying to stay in shape a little bit, get my stamina up. So that’s really all I’m concentrating on.’’

Hartley has been wearing a boot cast all day except for when she goes to bed or goes to physical therapy.

``It’s frustrating, but at the same time it is a long season and you don’t want it to get worse,’’ Hartley said. ``So you just want to make sure it’s fully healed. I don’t really want it to be like a nagging injury all season. It definitely feels better from when I first realized I was hurting really bad. It’s probably like 70 percent almost. I’m doing a lot of stuff in the pool, doing a lot of stuff on the bike. It’s helping a little bit.’’

Hartley said that her range of motion is improving and the swelling is decreasing so there are at least signs of encouragement. She is doing things a little at a time to make sure she isn’t creating another setback for herself or causing more pain.

She said she wants to get back to practice as soon as possible, because she’s getting really annoyed at having to sit out.

“So soon I’ll be back in there, at least doing a little bit of court stuff, maybe doing stuff with Rosie on the side,” Hartley said. “I was able to shoot a little bit today. So that was good. Just like free throws, stationary stuff. They still don’t want me jumping on it. But they did say I’ll come out of the boot for maybe like three hours a day like while we’re in practice and try to do stuff out of the boot and see how that feels.”

She does feel like all the time she has missed has been somewhat of a setback in terms of learning the offensive sets Auriemma wants to run and developing chemistry with the new players. But she said she’s been paying attention from the sideline and knows Auriemma will be there when she gets back on the court.

In her absence, the Huskies have looked to fifth year senior Caroline Doty and freshman Moriah Jefferson to run the offense.

Auriemma said he is not yet sure what his starting lineup for Sunday’s game will be. He knows that Kelly Faris, Stefanie Dolson and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis will all start. He said he is considering two combinations of players to fill the other two spots. He will likely either start Doty with freshman forward Breanna Stewart or will start Jefferson at guard with Morgan Tuck at forward.

“I always tend to lean toward experience,” Auriemma said. “But if I start Caroline and Stewie with the other three, what do you do when Bria comes back? Somebody’s got to sit.”

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